


i dream with my eyes open

by skai_heda



Category: The 100 (TV), Voyage au centre de la Terre | Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Mild Gore, Mystery, POV Bellamy Blake, Strangers to Lovers, journey to the center of the earth (2008) fusion, mountain guide! clarke, scientist! bellamy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 08:01:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24347674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skai_heda/pseuds/skai_heda
Summary: bellamy blake's sister went missing six years ago. when he detects seismic activity near the place she was last active, he's determined to figure out what happened to her.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake & Octavia Blake, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	i dream with my eyes open

**Author's Note:**

> setting from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, inspired by the 2008 movie of the same name
> 
> title is a quote from verne's book, which i highly recommend you read!!

_I've made it my mission to understand the world in a way that no one else ever will. It's not because I want to put my name on something, or even because I want to be on the cover of Time Magazine. It's a lot bigger than that, Bellamy, it always was. This planet is big and beautiful, but it is a mystery. And you know me—I can't just leave it unsolved._

_If you look through my stuff in our lab, you'll probably find that computer with the map on it. Our life's work, huh? 22 of my seismology sensors still active. It's a shame I won't be able to see all that progress in the lab again, but I'm finally going to investigate it._

_I know I should've talked to you about it, Bellamy, I know. But you would've approached my situation as a big brother and not a fellow scientist. I love you, Bell, but I had to go. This means the world to me._

_I'm going to Iceland first. I have reason to believe that Iceland is the place I need to be._

_Please try not to worry too much. Legally, I am an adult. And I'll try to contact you when I get there—or when I get something interesting._

_You'll thank me later, Bell. I'm sorry._

_Love,_

_O_

* * *

He can feel his concentration waning.

If someone asked Bellamy where he'd go if he could be anywhere in the world, he might answer, _wherever my sister is._ But if he wasn't looking to make conversation awkward, he'd probably say his old lab. As far as he was considered, it was all he really had of his sister. All the pictures and recordings in the world could not add up to the presence of Octavia Blake.

"Bellamy," Raven says. "Are you even reading the report?"

"No," he replies. "Yes. I don't know."

_"Bellamy."_

"I had a long night, okay?" he says, though there's no real heat behind his words. At the lab he works at _now,_ they've been pursuing something boring like earthquake patterns here in California, combing through years of essentially useless data. 

"Scientific American published an article on your sister," Murphy says, squinting at her computer. "Made her sound like Jesus's long lost sister or something."

Bellamy laughs slightly, rubbing his temples. "I didn't want to read it. It'll sound like she's died."

He senses Raven and Murphy glance sideways at each other, and he's glad they don't make the comment he knows they're thinking of. 

"Isn't your mom visiting today?" Murphy mumbles, apparently desperate to change the subject.

"Oh, _fuck,"_ he mumbles, glancing down at his watch. _"Fuck me."_

"I did," Raven says, scrolling through another report. "It was alright."

"Do you guys realize how awkward it is when you two bring up that one casual hookup you had in college?" Murphy groans, sitting up.

"It's not like it matters, we're like siblings now," Bellamy replies.

"That's even worse!"

He rolls his eyes. "Okay. We will keep the S-E-X talk to a minimum here. I've gotta run."

"Tell her we said hi," Raven murmurs, putting her chin in one hand. "Enjoy quality time with your family while we work our asses off in this lab."

Bellamy laughs again, grabbing his jacket as he goes.

* * *

He finds his mom waiting in a car outside his apartment when he arrives, and instead of going in he goes to the car, knocking on the window. Aurora Blake jumps a little, but smiles as she looks at her son.

"It's great to see you again," she says as he opens the door to his apartment. "How have you been?"

"You ask me that every week, Ma," Bellamy murmurs, taking her bag for her. "I told you, I'm okay."

"Octavia's birthday is today."

"You say that as if I forgot," he replies, sitting down on the couch. "By the way, what's in the box?"

"I brought a few of her things here. I felt like your apartment needed more of—more of your sister."

It's a nice sentiment, but it doesn't sit right with him. For the past six years, everyone's acted like his sister has died.

(perhaps, in the deepest part of his brain, he knows that she has.)

"Mom," he murmurs. "This—"

"It's been _six_ years, Bell," his mother says. "I know I brought you her stuff, but it's time to let her go."

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "Please tell me you didn't drive all the way to San Diego just to tell me this."

"Everyone is worried about you, Bellamy!" Aurora insists. "You act like she's still alive, like she's going to walk in through that door at any moment. And it made sense the first year, but it doesn't anymore. She's gone, honey. I'm sure she tried to come back to us, but she couldn't. And you have to let her go."

He sits in silence for a long time, contemplating his mother's words. He reaches out to open the box, finding a worn book on top of everything else. _Journey to the Center of the Earth._

Bellamy frowns slightly, glancing sideways at his mother.

"Okay," he mumbles at last. "I—I'll let her go."

Aurora smiles so brightly that he almost feels bad about lying. "That's good, honey. That's really good."

* * *

The following weekend, he approaches the box his mother had left behind. Opening it, he sees the Jules Verne book still in there, a faded cover from all the years of use. He picks it up, remembering the times he'd read it to her before bed, on the weekends when they didn't have homework.

Tentatively, he raises the book to his nose, inhaling the scent of the old pages, trying to immerse himself in the memory of his sister with him.

In a vague blur, he thinks he sees handwriting in the margins, and he lowers it to get a better look. Turning on the lamp on his desk, he stares hard at the scribbled notes in there. Symbols, numbers, words. Unmistakably Octavia's handwriting.

Bellamy frowns as he skims it, finding two columns of random letters—JG, AR, KI, OF, BF, I, N. Notes on seismology—a tunnel leading straight down to—the core of the planet.

He stares at the small illustration on that page, thinking, wondering.

"'Heightened activity in Iceland,'" he reads. "'2014..."" It's the year Octavia had gone missing.

He reads her notes on the current seismic patterns in that location. And maybe, if the conditions in which she disappeared were recreated, Bellamy could finally understand what had happened to her.

Bellamy groans as he leans back in his chair. Only three of Octavia's seismic sensors are still active, and he's pretty sure that the Iceland one isn't one of them.

_Maybe if the data was present in another location..._

He rubs his eyes. Maybe now wasn't the best time to go to his lab, but he didn't have any other choice. With the data Octavia had written in the book, he may finally be able to obtain the answer that has evaded him all these years.

The lab is completely empty when he gets there, though it would have been the same even in the middle of the day. People usually don't go to the Blake lab anymore. Bellamy makes a beeline for the computer with the world map on it, observes the sensors. On it, he counts four red dots indicating the location of the sensors.

 _That can't be right._ He's sure that only three sensors are active. Bellamy leans closer to it, looking at the locations. Bolivia, Japan, Santiago—and one north of Reykjavic, Iceland.

Holding the copy of the book up to the screen, he compares the seismic data to the numbers displayed for Iceland. 

It's the same—down to the last number.

"Looks like I'm going to Iceland," he murmurs to himself.

* * *

The second flight from Seattle to Reykjavic is long and dull, with nothing to do except try and decipher all of Octavia's notes. He keeps getting hung up on those letter columns, the only real thing with no meaning whatsoever. The rows can't all be elements, can they?

He squints at it for a few minutes. Maybe he's reading into it too much.

Or maybe, Bellamy isn't reading it right at all. Rather than read it left to right, he reads down the column, producing a name—Jakob Griffin.

Using the in-flight wifi he purchased, he googles the name. Turns out Jakob Griffin is also a seismologist/volcanologist who lives in Iceland, and he runs an institute on volcanology.

Smiling slightly to himself, Bellamy finally thinks he's getting somewhere.

* * *

Except, he's lost now.

Night has fallen in Iceland, and Bellamy can't seem to find any road to the spot he had circled on his map of Iceland, the place where the sensor came back online. Groaning slightly to himself, he drives until he reaches a shack, isolated in the plains with light glowing from within.

_Nice. Now this is turning into a horror movie._

Regardless, he pulls into the property, staring at the board. _Griffin Institute for Volcanology._

Frowning slightly, he parks the car and gets out, approaching the front door. Bellamy knocks on it about three times, waiting with his arms crossed. He hears a female voice muffled by the door yell in thick Icelandic.

"Sorry, I don't—uh, I don't speak Icelandic," he calls back, and the door opens a second later, revealing a woman with golden hair and icy blue eyes. 

"What the hell do you want?" she says in a flawless American accent.

"I'm Bellamy Blake," he says, putting his hand out. The woman reaches out to shake it, although her expression is still apprehensive and a touch threatening. "I'm a seismologist, and I'd like to speak to Jakob Griffin if that's alright with you."

The woman crosses her arms and leans against the threshold. "I'm afraid you're too late. He died last winter."

This gives Bellamy pause. "Oh," he says finally. "Uh, did you work with him?"

She shakes her head, tucking a curl behind her ear. "He was my father."

"Oh, alright. Well, I have reason to believe that my sister was here—"

"This place hasn't been an institution in six years," the woman says. "No scientist has been here."

"I never said she was a scientist."

"I'm not stupid, Mr. Blake," she sighs, then glances down at Bellany's hand, clutching the copy of _Journey to the Center of the Earth._ "It's late," she murmurs, her expression turning slightly sour. "I suppose you'd better come in."

She moves out of the way so he can come into the place, instructing him quietly to take off his shoes and jacket. The place is clean, except for the few sketchbooks lying around. He peeks into a room full of ropes and medkits, the occasional unopened package of flares.

"I never got your name," he says, taking a seat.

"I'm Clarke," she says, bringing out two mugs of something warm. He takes it in his hands, taking a moment to enjoy the heat below his fingers. "So, Bellamy—why did you come here?"

Bellamy reluctantly sets down the mug to open to the bookmarked page of the book. "My sister went missing six years ago chasing some seismic and volcanic breakthrough here in Iceland. I recently got a copy of one of her books, and I saw a lot of notes about her agenda and the conditions of the area where she was last detected to be alive—I can explain them to you—"

"No need," Clarke says, leaning closer to glance at the handwriting. "My father taught me everything he learned."

"His name was written in this book," he says, glancing up at the woman in front of him. "I think he saw her. Before she disappeared."

**Author's Note:**

> i just want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my last work. i realized that i cant just give up that easily.  
> also heres a post because this draft is about to get deleted so im just turning it into a multichapter work and posting the first chapter now. love you all!


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